Maybe it’s the way the 8-part series — spearheaded, written and directed by Steven Zaillian — showcases a kind of world gone by, in its hauntingly perfect B&W. Or maybe it’s how there is a bit of Tom Ripley in each and every one of us. Whatever the reason, the Andrew Scott starrer is now deeply embedded in my heart… and thoughts.
I remember the first time I laid eyes on Andrew Scott, as the evil James Moriarty in the BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as his archenemy titular character. It was a wow moment, because to me no one had embodied wicked in quite the same, read fun and frightful, way before. He went on to bigger roles, but never was Scott better, IMHO, than he was just then.
Until now.
You see, Andrew Scott was simply born to play Tom Ripley, the con artist at the center of American novelist Patricia Highsmith’s series of books. During a conversation on Zoom, Scott points to the “artist” part of the expression “con artist” which he himself uses to describe Ripley. “He’s an artist nonetheless,” he admits, “incredibly talented.” The first installment of the series of books by Highsmith is called, in fact, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and the novel has inspired a handful of cinematic adaptations, including the 1999 version by Anthony Minghella starring Matt Damon as Ripley, and Plein Soleil (“Purple Noon” in America), a 1960 French film directed by René Clément and starring Alain Delon.
“It’s not about asking have you ever met a real life Ripley, but what part of Tom Ripley is within us?” The Irish screen and stage actor asks, as the answer to a question posed to him, during the press meetup. “That’s the achievement of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, is that we actually root for him as he’s doing these bad things.”
In fact, everyone who chatted about the series — quite possibly the best television experience you’ll have this year… scratch that, this decade! — shied away from using labels to identify Ripley. “I was very reluctant to diagnose the character with anything,” Scott admits, “we have so many questions about him,” which makes Ripley so endearing. One thing’s for sure, and that is that “the information Tom gives off about himself is not necessarily reliable, you can’t quite trust that,” Scott finishes off the thought.
I don’t want to risk giving too much away, both to those who haven’t watched the films and don’t know the story of Tom Ripley, but also for those who have — since Ripley, directed by American Armenian filmmaker and writer Steven Zaillian does it all quite differently. What I can say is that the series takes advantage of its 8-episode format to truly develop the story and delve into the characters involved.
When shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf (played by director and writer Kenneth Lonergan) asks small time grifter Thomas Ripley to find his errant son Richard “Dickie”, who spends his time painting and enjoying himself in the picturesque town of Atrani on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, and convince him to come home to NYC, Ripley sees an opportunity of a lifetime. He takes the dough, boards the boat and trains to get to Southern Italy from the US and “runs into” Dickie (the charming Johnny Flynn) by chance on the deserted, pebbley beach of Atrani. Dickie’s life, which he shares with his girlfriend Madge (played by former child star Dakota Fanning, now all grown up into her acting chops), seems an idyllic world away from Tom’s squalid existence in NYC, and the web is woven for an intoxicating plot to follow.
Dickie’s character, as Flynn discloses over Zoom, is intrinsically good. “Steve just kept saying “he’s a nice guy!” I remember him saying that a lot,” the quietly handsome British actor and songwriter confesses.
It’s no wonder Tom wants into that, lock stock and barrel. And this idea of our human desire to want what someone else has, while also envying it and hating the other when we realize it’s unobtainable since it requires us to switch into their character and upbringing too, is what lies at the center of Ripley. Having what Dickie has requires qualities like gentleness and generosity that aren’t part of Tom’s DNA. Simple as that.
For Zaillian, who admits having “been a fan of the book for a long time,” and how had seen “the other adaptations that had been done,” the one thing that was clear right way, what, as he says also via Zoom, is that he “felt that to do it the way I wanted to do it, I needed more time.” So in came Showtime, and then Netflix to provide a platform to lengthen the format and stretch out the storyline.
Zaillian continues, “the 8-episode format suited this book — it allowed me to get into the details of the story and the details of the characters and the changing relationships between the characters, in a way that you can’t really do in two hours. That was the allure for me.” In fact, as Scott explains “we don’t read a novel in two hours, we read it over a certain amount of time,” so the long form television version of telling the story of Ripley appealed to him, as well as showrunner Zaillian, from the getgo.
“The black and white can be married in some way in how [Zaillian] wanted to teach the audience to watch this story in a very particular way,” Scott continues and that’s also “very similar to how we read a novel.”
Dakota Fanning gushed about the project and her co-stars, including the Italian actor Maurizio Lombardi who plays Rome’s police Inspector Pietro Ravini, on the heels of Ripley but also Dickie. She lightens the mood of the press meetup at one point, when talking about the extensive shoot which took place all over Italy during the pandemic. “What was your impression of Italy?” she asks Lombardi and giggles, then admits that the actor, looking handsome in a white suit over Zoom, “was the guide in Italy.”
About her co-star Scott, with whom she spars throughout the series, as Fanning herself could be called the audience’s guide to Ripley, she admits, “I couldn’t have asked for a better person to get to work with, so intimately, than Andrew.” Fanning continues, “I think we have a similar approach to our work, and also need to have some joy also. We were able to really lean on one another in between.”
And what attracted the actress to the role of Marge? “Being asked to be involved in the project was exciting. Period,” she answers, continuing that “our Marge, who is in this series, I think, you get to go a bit deeper with her. You get to go a bit deeper with all the characters, as Steve said, because you have more time and I liked the idea of playing one of the characters that would perhaps go toe to toe with Tom Ripley.”
The idea to film it all in B&W, which adds an extra layer of cool to Ripley, was born out of Highsmith’s book itself and its timing. “The book was written in 1955, it really is a kind of noir story — the novelistic version of film noir,” confesses Zaillian, who “felt it would be distinctive in black and white because it wouldn’t be like some sunny postcard of a story, which I don’t think the book was.”
Star child Eliot Sumner plays Freddie Miles, a friend of Dickie’s character in ‘Ripley’
Lombardi confirms that “Ripley gives the audience a perfect moment in the early [60’s] in Italy. If you can see photos of that period you see the same on the screen — it’s really incredible,” the actor gushes.
When Lombardi also points out that Ripley as a “story is so real, and Tom, “he’s so contemporary as a character,” Zaillian provides some more insight into what makes this story such an audience favorite, told time and time again.
“I think the audience is Tom as well,” he says, along with the character of Marge who, “makes us understand what he’s doing but is complicit in a way — she’s onto him right away, Marge.”
And about his titular character, the show runner says, “I never felt Tom was a psychopath. People describe him as that sometimes,” though Zaillian admits that “he’s certainly not a professional killer. He does it a sloppy way we might do it. That’s another reason we relate to him. He’s no better at that sort of thing than we would be.”
Famous last words belong to Scott, who says about the series, and his character “there is a message that everybody is deserving of beauty and art, it’s not just for the rich.” He continues, “and talented people are all over the world, in developed countries and developing countries,” and their success, or lack thereof is “about class, money, morality and fairness.”
Ripley kicks off on Netflix on April 4th, and not a moment too soon! The series is also Executive Produced by Garrett Basch, Clayton Townsend, Guymon Casady, Benjamin Forkner, Philipp Keel, Sharon Levy and Charlie Corwin, along with Zaillian. Scott and Enzo Sisti are producers. The whole cast is made up of Andrew Scott, Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn, Eliot Sumner, Maurizio Lombardi, Margherita Buy, Bokeem Woodbine, Kenneth Lonergan, Ann Cusack, and John Malkovich. Cinematography on Ripley is American DoP Robert Elswit (Magnolia, There Will Be Blood), with Production Design by David Gropman, best known for his work on The Cider House Rules and Life of Pi, both of which garnered the LA native Academy Awards nominations, while Costume Design is by Italian duo Giovanni Casalnuovo and Maurizio Millenotti, best known for their work on Rupert Everett’s directorial venture The Happy Prince.
Images courtesy of Netflix, used with permission.